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The criteria of addiction

I write this from a colourfully stripped chair in the local library, infused by thoughts of Will Self acerbically stating his claim on libraries for the sake of books! Just think of it, a library dedicated to books, book and nothing but books, not coffee, not DVDs, not photocopying, not even community enrichment, just books. A view I share, but this morning, the free wi-fi is especially useful. I’ve had a busy past couple of days and have needed to get two sermons written, as well as a kids club talk and lines learned (re-learned) too, so I sent the internet away, but now I’m here. Zadie Smith spoke of the brilliance of a feature on her laptop called self-control which switched the internet off for eight hours, so that you can get some work done. Mr. Self (somewhere else) writes that the internet

…fulfils the criteria of addiction, which is obsessive mental content connected to compulsive action. The machine itself seems like a paradigm of the addictive state. I can see it as something that needs to be put down the way an alcoholic puts down drink.